Failed Roast beef, but awesome Accidental Soup.

Roast Beef (I think)

Roast Beef (I think)

I really like Roast Beef. I grow up not having it, I don’t think my mum ever cooked it for me, but when I go to the likes of a sandwich shop, a roast beef and horseradish sandwich is one of my favorites. My mum did make Salt Beef, which I’ll try to make myself one day, but it just isn’t the same (in fact, it’s far better, but still, not the same).

By chance, I was browsing around ASDA with my flatmate, Russingleton, when I spied a ‘brisket’ and my juices got flowing about having having lovely roast beef sandwiches for a week.

I couldn’t find any recipes on the video websites by any of my favorite chefs, so I thought I would piece together what I thought I remembered from Telly and do something myself.

Here’s what you need.

  • A bag of carrots
  • 2 onions
  • 2 Garlic bulbs
  • Some port or red wine
  • Some concentrated beef stock
  • A brisket of beef.
  • Olive Oil, Salt and Pepper
  • Mustard (Grainy or English)

Here’s what I did….

  • Put the oven on full-whack
  • Cut the onions into 6 or 8 pieces, all put together.
  • Cut the carrots up into bite sized chunks.
  • Cover the beef in Olive Oil, Salt and Pepper
  • Make up about 1½ pints of beef stock, I used some concentrated stuff because I thought it would taste stronger.
  • Add three good glugs of port to the stock.
  • Brown off the beef in a frying pan
  • Cover the beef in grainy mustard, or English if want a fuller flavour.
  • Rest veg in the pan, with 2 bulbs of garlic separated into cloves (I didn’t bother to peel it, life’s to short) cover  the veg with stock.
  • Place the beef on top, cover with tin foil.
  • Put the oven down to about 150ish.
  • Cook it for about 3 hours, turning it every now-and-then.
  • Leave to rest for 30 minutes, carve and serve.
Most of the stuff I used.

Most of the stuff I used.

Brown off the beef.

Brown off the beef.

Veg in a pan

Veg in a pan

Beef covered with mustard, veg covered in stock.

Beef covered with mustard, veg covered in stock.

The liquid doubled ! Oops, oh well, makes a nice soup.

The liquid doubled ! Oops, oh well, makes a nice soup.

Looks good, but was way too tough.

Looks good, but was way too tough.

The soup bit is amazing though.

The soup bit is amazing though.

The garlic is nice and squidgy, but the other veg was too hard.

The garlic is nice and squidgy, but the other veg was too hard.

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  • Tricia Peters

    You were on the right tracks.

    A brisket is best as a pot roast. It’s a bit like making a casserole with one big piece of meat.

    The cooking time would need to be increased (depending on the weight of the joint) but an average supermarket joint would probably need a good 5 hours on a low heat just a bit lower than you had it on should do the trick. Make sure it’s covered too. That way the steam will help cook the veg and loosen up the fibres in the meat

  • Clare

    Tricia’s right about pot-roasting brisket – it’s lovely then. I’d use topside or rib for roasting.

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